Nantucket Weddings Unveiled

Many couples who get married in September don’t want that full on fall look.  Rather than gourds, berries, bittersweet and fall leaves, they want a late summer feel.  We created a board with some color chips that will help keep the look on the lighter side while still being appropriate for a Nantucket wedding.

images courtesty of weddingstylemagazine.com, brides.com, and estiloweddings.com

To round out this color pallete be sure you pick up this beautiful stationary by Marty Kelly Papers.  These are produced on 100% recyled paper so you are also being earth friendly!  Beautiful design Marty!

Parchment Fine Papers has so many wonderful invitation sets, occasion cards and gift ideas. But when we saw these coasters we thought they would add that perfect touch to any island wedding or rehearsal dinner. The coastal theme and colors can work for the most sophisticated soiree or your classic clambake.

Or if you are putting together welcome bags for your guests consider adding in a collection of these coasters. Their letterpress designs are stunning and your guest will enjoy memories from your wedding as they use them in their homes.

It’s the little details!

You can visit Parchment at 11 Washington Street in downtown Nantucket.

The weather is always an unpredictable and stressful topic for weddings. Rain, hurricanes, wind…. nobody wants it! We all want a bright beautiful sunshine filled Nantucket wedding. If you are planning an outside wedding there are a few ways to help prepare for your best case scenario.

If you are having an outside ceremony consider covering all your bases by putting up a tent to cover your guests. This can help protect them from not only a rainy day but also a bright, sunny and hot day. Offering up some shade will help keep your guests more comfortable.

If your ceremony will be on the short and sweet side parisols are also a great way to offer up some shade to guests. Place a large basket of them at the back of the seating area so guests can choose one as they take their seats.

Consider setting fans on all the guests seats or creating your programs to look like fans. Guests get a wonderfully creative memento from the ceremony and another option for keeping themselves cool.

Offer beverages! This is very important for all guests comfort in the heat. Ask your caterer about setting about a drink station or bar at your location. Another option that can be fun is a lemonade stand or barrels filled with ice cold water.

Photo courtesy Brea McDonald Photography

Watercolor Lemonade Sign by Griffin-vites Stationery

Many Nantucket couples come to get hitched here because of the tranquility of the beach.  If you are choosing to hold your rehearsal dinner or reception on or near the beach, carry out Mother Nature’s treasures up on to your tabletop.  You can rent rattan chargers, napkin rings, bamboo silverware and even basket weave plates from Placesetters.  A shell linen completes the look.  Ask stationer Marty Kelly to design your menu’s and escort cards with a shell motif in your colors.  You can complete the look by using scallop shell or quahog shells to hold salt and pepper.  A seaside inspired table sure to excite your guests!

photo by Schylur Shepherd

It’s strawberry season here on Nantucket and we thought it would be a perfect time to share this adorable watercolor stationery design with you. Griffin-vites Watercolor Stationery creates the most amazing custom designed work for weddings. She also offers a large selection of standard designs that include hydrangeas, lobsters and rustic fall scenes. But today we take a peek at her strawberry set!

Photos Courtesy of Brea McDonald Photography

Wedding season is in high gear here in Nantucket.  While 2010 couples are saying their “I Do’s” – 2011 couples are busy making calls, booking venues and vendors, and getting details in order (September 10, 2011 seems to be a very popular date.  We think maybe that is because the invitations will read 09.10.11).  We asked Sara from Griffin-vites Stationary to give a little 411 on postage guidelines for those upcoming 2011 nuptials.

“One of the little bits of info that I always pass along to my brides has to do with postage.  While many are aware, some may not realize that the typical wedding invite requires more postage than your average birthday card.  It’s so important to take a fully assembled invitation set – just as you plan to mail it – to the post office to have it weighed, its thickness measured, etc. before making any assumptions.  Its size and shape (square envelopes require even more postage) will determine the postage it needs to make it to your guests safely!  And remember to stamp those rsvp envelopes, too, so friends and family can reply quickly and easily!”

stationary suite by Griffin-vites, photo by Brea McDonald

There are many places both on the web and in print for couples to get ideas, color combinations, the latest look in dresses, etc.  One of our favorite resources for island weddings is Wellwed Magazine.  The pages of the magazine are filled to the brim with amazing details that give your day that extra special touch.  The website for the magazine showcases local vendor resources, and posts tips from the most sought after vendors.  Be sure to include this magazine on your must reads as you start to pull the inspiring details together for your ‘I Do’s’.  You will be glad you did.

photo by Zofia Photography, bouquet by Soiree Floral

With the style of the paper suite established, it made working on the paper-products for the wedding day very easy. For the ceremony program, the pattern was done as a border on the bottom of the cover, almost the same look of the reply card from the invitations. We incorporated another surprise – Jen did the most amazing pencil drawing of the Sankaty Lighthouse which was printed on the back cover of the program. It added a highly personalized touch to the ceremony programs. At the reception site, we had escort cards and on the table, donation cards. For the escort cards, we created a mini version of the save-the-date piece. Again with a grommet in the corner, the guest name was written on the front and the table name on the inside card. Instead of having favors for all the guests, Jen and Carter made a donation to cancer research. They had pins which they invited everyone to wear, in memory of loved ones. To convey this message, we created a card which was inserted into the napkins on the tables. It was double-layer, with a fuschia backer card and white top card. The ink was navy, keeping that color in the mix. Besides giving their guests an important message, the cards added a pop of color to the tables and tied the blues of the paper-suite to the colors of the flowers.

Creating a paper-suite for you wedding can be an overwhelming process. However, your stationer is there to help you! With communication and collaboration, you can create something as beautiful as this collection but reflective of your own personal style. I always advise my brides to bring in pictures of anything they see that they are attracted to. It helps me understand the look they are going for, and gives us a place to start. The wedding invitations really set the tone for the wedding, whether traditional or contemporary, formal or informal… the most important thing is that it reflects the style and personality of the bride and groom.

Flowers by Soiree Floral. Linens & Chairs from Placesetters, Inc.

Parchment is located at 11 Washington Street or you can e-mail Heidi directly at Heidi@parchmentnantucket.com

Today, Brea and Dawn asked that I write about one of my favorite invitation suites which has come out of Parchment. This job was a total collaborative effort between myself, the bride, and a few opinions from the groom! One element of the design process that was unique is that the bride is an architect, so she was not only able to envision the final product but she also had some fabulous ideas about the construction of the save the date and invitation.

Lets start with the save the date! The letterpress paper suite was produced by William Arthur, through their custom department. Using the custom avenue at William Arthur allows for variations on what is shown is their albums as well as creation of pieces that are not shown in the albums. Jen and I started with an existing design in the Save-The-Date album and altered it to allow for letterpress printing. We also used an existing pattern for the cover, but had William Arthur enlarge the artwork so the scale worked better for the size of the piece. On the interior pages, Jen and Carter included a brief note about the reasons they chose Nantucket as the location for their wedding. The third page had some information about getting to Nantucket and places to stay once here. They did a great job of keeping their copy tight and not turning it into a “Chamber of Commerce Guide” which allowed us to keep the piece on the smaller side as well as giving their guests important information without overwhelming them.

When we started out, it was not our intention to have everything match all the way through, but the finished Save-the-date was so beautiful that there was no choice… we had to carry that design forward! Jen had seen an invitation format that was more like a cover with a pocket on the inside. We designed it so when open, the pocket was on the left, holding the reply and reception cards. The invitation was mounted on the right side of the interior. When closed, the invitation had a double band around it. Instead of using the inner envelope, the band served as the place to write the guest names. It was a unique and fun way to not only eliminate the inner envelope, but add an element to the cover that broke up the pattern and brought forward the darker navy paper that was the base of the cover. Besides carrying forward the pattern from the save the date, we also used the same ink colors with one addition – just a splash of hot pink on the reception card, which said “and then they danced”. It was a fun surprise to open the invitation, in shades of navy and french blue, very traditional wording and layout, only to find that one line if whimsical copy in the fuschia! We also brought in the pattern just as a border on the bottom of the reply cards, and as a singular element on both the invitation and reception card. Again, that served to carry the design forward and bring all the paper elements together in a cohesive group.

One detail that was not in our original plan… the grommets! When the invitations first came back from the printer, there weight of the paper was causing the foldover for the pocket to not hold fast. It was a heartbreaking situation… we had literally spent hours designing this invitation! So, the solution we came up with was to fasten a grommet in the upper and lower corners of the pocket. It not only harkened back to the grommet that was used on the save the date, but it also added a fabulous architectural element to the invitation (not to mention that it solved a Big Problem!) With this problem ironed out, the beautiful invitations were off to the guests.

Stay tuned for more details on this stunning custom designed invitation set from Parchment! Programs…. seating cards…. so much more!

I recently photographed a stunning Nantucket wedding at the White Elephant. The bride and groom infused their wedding with lots of classic Nantucket details. One of these elements was their Nantucket postcard escort table. I LOVE this idea and thought it was such a fun twist! The table was filled with a tray of deep thick grass that held up the vintage Nantucket postcards. Each postcard had the bride and grooms name and address already filled in so that after the wedding the guests could send them their wishes. So fun!! The cards also had the guest name and table name printed at the bottom left of the card where the post office bar code would end up.

What a great way to seat your guests and relive the wedding through their wedding postcards the weeks after the big day!

Photo courtesy Brea McDonald Photography